1. Top 10 Best Free Editing Softwares
2. Best Free Video Editing Software For Mac
3. Best Free Audio Editing Software For Mac
4. Best Free Audio Editing Software For Mac

Cubase is probably the best audio editing software with the most professional interface you will ever see in an audio editing software. If you are new to the audio editing field and are looking for the best tool to support your creativity and your passion for music then you must own Cubase. Blender is an free video editing software for Mac and free 3D rendering program, which features the best list of animationessentials such as modeling, rigging, interface, animation, shading, UV unwrapping, real time 3D gamecreation, and so on.

Edit Video on Your PC

Top 10 Best Free Editing Softwares

Nothing makes an impression like moving pictures with sound. That's why digital video continues to grow in importance online. Couple that trend with the ever-increasing availability of devices capable of high-resolution video recording—phones, GoPros, DSLRs—and the case for ever-more powerful video editing software becomes clear. Further, the software must be usable by nonprofessionals, and it has to keep up with newer formats such as HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) and 360-degree VR video, and it has to be able to handle 4K and higher resolution.

Increasingly, new capabilities trickle down from professional-level software to the consumer category. That's a good thing for nonprofessional movie editors, since the more consumer-oriented software tends to make easier procedures that can sometimes be pretty tricky in the pro-level software. Read on for a survey of the latest trends in video editing software along with our top picks in the field.

Multicam, Motion Tracking, and Yet More Motion

Advanced abilities continue to make their way into accessible, affordable, and consumer-friendly video editing software as each new generation of software is released. For example, multicam editing, which lets you switch among camera angles of the same scene shot with multiple video cameras, used to be a feature relegated to pro-level software. Now this and many other advanced effects are available in programs designed for use by nonprofessional enthusiasts.

Another impressive effect that has made its way into consumer-level video editing software is motion tracking, which lets you attach an object or effect to something moving in your video. You might use it to put a blur over the face of someone you don't want to show up in your video. You specify the target face, and the app takes care of the rest, tracking the face and moving the effect to follow it. This used to be the sole province of special effects software such as Adobe After Effects. Corel VideoStudio was the first of the consumer products to include motion tracking, and it still leads the pack in the depth and usability of its motion-tracking tool, though several others now include the capability.

The 4K Video Factor

Support for 4K video source content has become pretty standard in video editing software, but the support varies among the products. For example, some but not all of the applications can import Sony XAVC and XAVC-S formats, which are used by Sony's popular DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, camcorders, and professional video cameras. The same holds true for the H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. Most of the applications here now can import and export HEVC, though there are still a few holdouts.

360-Degree VR Support

Several of the products here (Adobe Premiere Elements is a notable exception) still support 3D video editing if that's your thing, though the this has been replaced by 360-degree VR footage like that shot by the Samsung Gear 360 as the current home-theater fad. As is often the case, our Editors' Choice, CyberLink PowerDirector was the first product in this group to offer support for this new kind of video media.

Other programs have jumped on board with 360 VR support, including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro X, and Magix Movie Edit Pro. Support varies, with some apps including 360-compatible titles, stabilization, and motion tracking. PowerDirector is notable for including those last two. Final Cut offers a useful tool that removes the camera and tripod from the image, often an issue with 360-degree footage.

Video Editing 101

Of course, none of the extras matter if an app can't do the most basic editing tasks. At this point, however, all of the products included here do a good job of letting you join, trim, and split video clips. They also let you make use of special effects such as animated transitions, picture-in-picture (PiP), chroma-key (the technique that lets you place a subject against any background, often known as green screening), and filters that enhance colors or apply creative effects and distortions. With most of them you can add a multitude of timeline tracks that can accommodate video clips, effects, audio, and text overlays.

A tool coming to the latest versions of video editing applications is support for seamless transitions. Picture a scene showing people at a beach, and suddenly the sky zooms in and your in Rome or Paris, but it looks like you're in the same place because the transition glued the two scenes together using the sky. There are plenty of other examples of seamless transition; this magnificent video shows a good selection of them, and is partly responsible for starting the trend.

Color, LUTs and CLUTs

One of the capabilities that has been making its way into consumer-level video editing software is more-detailed color grading. Color wheels, curves, and histograms give editors control over the intensity of every shade. Related to this is support for LUTs (lookup tables), also known as CLUTs (color lookup tables). This staple of pro-level software lets you quickly change the look of a video to give it a specific mood. For example, think of the dark blue look of thriller movies like The Revenant. You can download LUTs for free from several sites or use those included with some video software to give your video a specific look. One well-known LUT type is the kind that can make a daytime scene look like it was shot at night.

Where the Action Is

Many video editing apps now include tools that cater to users of action cameras such as the GoPro Hero7 Black. For example, several offer automated freeze-frame along with speedup, slowdown, and reverse time effects. CyberLink PowerDirector's Action Camera Center pulls together freeze frame with stabilization, slo-mo, and fish-eye correction, and color correction for underwater footage. Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium includes the third-party NewBlue ActionCam Package of effects. And Wondershare Filmora lets you subscribe to new effect packs on an ongoing basis.

Titles That Zing

I've been seeing a lot of attention paid to creating title effects in the applications over the past year. Apple Final Cut Pro X has added 3D title creation, which is pretty spiffy, letting you extrude 2D titles and rotate them on three axes. Corel VideoStudio in its latest version also adds 3D Titling, though not as powerful as Apple's. PowerDirector's Title Designer offers transparency, gradient color, border, blur level, and reflection in titles; Magix has impressive title templates, complete with animations. Premiere Elements offers a nifty title effect in which your video fills the text characters, and Corel recently followed suit in VideoStudio 2019. Look for an application that lets you edit titles in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mode, so that you can type, format, and time it right over the video preview.

Gathering Speed

Video editing is one of the most computing-intensive activities around, so you'll want the best laptop or desktop you can afford if you're serious about cutting your own movies. Most applications help speed up the editing process by creating a proxy file of lower resolution, so that normal editing and previewing aren't slowed down by the huge full-resolution files.

Particularly intensive is the process of rendering your finished product into a standard video file that will by playable on the target device of choice, be that an HDTV, a laptop, or a smartphone. Most of the software can take advantage of your computer's graphics processor to speed this up. Be sure to check the performance section in each review linked here to see how speedy or slow the application is. In rendering speed testing, CyberLink and Pinnacle have been my perennial champs.

Other measures of performance include startup time and simple stability. Again, video editing is a taxing activity for any computer, involving many components. In the past, video editing programs took longer than most other apps to start up, and unexpected shutdowns were unfortunately common, even in top apps from top developers such as Adobe and Apple. The stability situation has greatly improved, but the complexity of the process, which increases as more powerful effects are added, means crashes will likely never be fully eliminated, and they often raise their ugly heads after a program update, as I found with the latest version of Pinnacle Studio.

Free Video Editing Software

If you don't want to invest a lot of money and effort into your video editing exploits, there are a few free options. Of course, if you use a Mac, the excellent iMovie comes with it. For PC users, Windows 10's Photos app (as of the Fall Creators Update) lets you join, trim, and even add background music, 3D animated effects, and titles to video.

There are also some free video apps on the Windows Store, including Movie Moments, PowerDirector Mobile, Movie Maker, and Magix Movie Edit Touch. Some of these are quite basic, but the Magix app is fairly capable, with clip joining, transitions, and effects, in a very touch-friendly interface.

Free video editing software often comes with legal and technical limitations, however. Some widely used codecs require licensing fees on the part of the software maker, meaning they can't offer free software that can handle these standard file formats. That said, the impressive open-source Shotcut does a lot of the same things that the paid applications in this roundup do, including things like chroma-keying and picture-in-picture. Shotcut is completely open-source and free, while another free option, Lightworks has paid options that remove a 720p output resolution limit. Note also that both Shotcut and Lightworks run on Linux as well as Windows and Mac.

What About Apple?

Though Mac users don't have the sheer number of software choices available for PCs, Apple fans interested in editing video are well served, by four products in particular. At the entry level, the surprisingly capable and enjoyable-to-use iMovie comes free with every Mac sold since at least 2011. iMovie only offers two video tracks, but does good job with chroma-keying, and its Trailers feature makes it easy to produce slick, Hollywood-style productions.

In the midrange, there's Adobe Premiere Elements, which is cross-platform between Macs and PCs, and offers a lot more features and lots of help with creating effects. Professionals and prosumers have powerful, though pricey options in Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro. Final Cut is a deceptively simple application that resembles iMovie in its interface and ease of use, but it offers massively deep capabilities, and many third-party apps integrate with it for even more power. It also makes excellent use of the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, as shown in photo above. Premiere Pro uses a more traditional timeline and adds a large ecosystem of companion apps and plug-ins. It also excels in collaboration features.

Audio Editing

We still live in the days of talkies, so you want to be able to edit the audio in your digital moves as well as the images. Most of the products included here offer canned background music, and many, such as Pinnacle Studio, can even tailor the soundtrack to the exact length of your movie. All of these programs can separate audio and video tracks, and most can clean up background noise and add environmental audio effects such as concert hall reverb. A couple of the products have an auto-ducking feature, which lowers background music during dialog—a definite pro-level plus.

What's Not Here

There are more video editing software applications than we can fit into this roundup of the best options, which includes only software rated three stars and higher. The best known among them is probably Vegas Movie Studio, which was recently acquired by Magix from Sony. Sony's product used a very cluttered interface that more resembled high-end professional video editing software from the early days of the craft. Magix has made some progress in simplifying it and bringing it up to par with the competition, but more work is needed for it to be included here.

Another program, VSDC Video Editor Pro, simply has too outdated an interface, making common tasks difficult. Longtime pro video editors will note the absence of Avid Media Composer, which is simply too unwieldy for PCMag's primarily consumer audience. There are a couple of more interesting applications—NCH VideoPad and AVS Video Editor among them—that we simply haven't tested yet.

The Finish Line

The video editing application you choose depends on your budget, the equipment you're using, and how serious you are. Fortunately, you're spoiled for choice with the products available. Peruse our in-depth reviews of enthusiast-level video editing software reviews linked below to see which is the right one for you.

One final note about the features table at the top of this story: Check marks represent differentiating, above-the-call-of-duty features, rather than essential ones. So, just because Nero Video and Wondershare Filmora don't have any checks, it doesn't mean they're not good choices. In fact, both offer decent basic editing on a budget.

Best Video Editing Software Featured in This Roundup:

• Adobe Premiere Pro CC Review

  
  MSRP: $19.99
  

  Pros: Clear, flexible interface. Lots of organizational tools. Responsive speed. Ultimate power in video editing. Rich ecosystem of video production apps. Excellent stabilization. Unlimited multi-cam angles.

  Cons: No keyword tagging for media. Some techniques require additional applications such as After Effects or SpeedGrade.

  Bottom Line: An expansive professional-level digital video editing program, Premiere Pro CC has everything today's pro video editor needs, particularly when it comes to collaboration.

  Read Review

• CyberLink PowerDirector Review

  
  MSRP: $129.99
  

  Pros: Fast rendering. Clear interface. Loads of effects. The most 360-degree video capabilities of any video editor. Multicam editing. 3D and 4K capability. Motion tracking. Screen recording.

  Cons: No trimming in source panel. Number of options can make interface overwhelming. Weak color matching.

  Bottom Line: PowerDirector is one of the fastest and most capable consumer-level video editing apps for Windows around, and the first to support 360-degree VR footage.

  Read Review

• Corel VideoStudio Ultimate Review

  
  MSRP: $99.99
  

  Pros: Wide selection of fun video-creation tools. Clear, simple interface. Fast rendering. Support for 360-degree VR, 4K Ultra HD, and 3D media. Multipoint Motion tracking. Multicam editing. HTML5 video page creation. Stop-motion tool.

  Cons: No keyword tagging for media.

  Bottom Line: Corel VideoStudio remains one of the most feature-packed consumer video editing packages around. The 2019 update adds powerful color-grading tools, seamless transitions, and text masks.

  Read Review

• Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Review

  
  MSRP: $129.95
  

  Pros: Clear interface. Edits 360-degree VR content. Fast rendering performance in testing. Tons of effects. Multicam editing. 4K and H.265 support. Tagging and star ratings for media. Good audio tools.

  Cons: Motion tracking issues on one test PC. Occasional crashes in testing. Uneven 360-degree VR implementation.

  Bottom Line: Pinnacle Studio is a fast, full-featured, near-professional-level video-editing application with support for 360-degree VR, 3D, and multicam edits. New color grading and four-point editing make it even more appealing, though our testing uncovered some instabilities.

  Read Review

• Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium Review

  
  MSRP: $129.99
  

  Pros: Lots of video effects. Multicam. Good titling tools. Trailer-like movie templates. Solid audio editing tools. Strong disc authoring. Fast rendering. Good stability. 360-degree media support.

  Apr 03, 2014  Free Screenshot Tools for Win/Mac 1. LightShot (Windows/Mac/Browser) – LightShot is one of the best free applications when it comes to taking screenshots fast and easily. It allows you to select any area on your desktop and share the screenshots via Internet or save them to your computer. But, when it comes to the best screenshot software, only Snagit can work perfectly for both, Windows and Mac machines. It’s a powerful desktop recorder with high-quality image editing tool, that you can’t find anywhere else. Awesome Screenshot for Chrome and Firefox is a browser-based extension that can capture a selected part of a website, the portion visible in the browser window or even the entirety of the page in. Nov 27, 2018  Read reviews and get the best screen capture software from top brands, including Snagit, ShareX, Screenpresso and more. Lifewire The 7 Best Screen Capture Software to Use in 2018. Search the site GO. Best Built-In Option (Mac): Screenshot. Courtesy of Apple. Works with: Mac and Windows. TinyGrab is a screenshot tool that is focused on social sharing. Using TinyGrab, you can take screenshots and upload them to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Wordpress and more with just the click of a button. TinyGrab also has one of the best screenshot apps for iPhone, which you can use for screenshot sharing on the go. Screenshot apps for pc.

  Cons: Not much help with difficult procedures. Lacks import and organization tools. Extra costs and coded downloads for some video formats.

  Bottom Line: Now with faster rendering, Movie Edit Pro offers solid stability, up-to-date support for 4K, 360-degree, and multicam editing, but it trails other video editing software in ease-of-use.

  Read Review

• Adobe Premiere Elements Review

  
  MSRP: $99.99
  

  Pros: Clear, simple interface. Guided Edits ease basic and advanced projects. Lots of video effects. Solid text tools. Powerful Audio editing. Good control over stabilization. 4K support.

  Cons: No 360-degree VR or 3D editing. No multicam feature or screen recording capability. Slow rendering speeds. No HEVC support in Windows.

  Bottom Line: Adobe's consumer video editing app adds a new start page, Auto Creations, a redesigned quick-editing interface, and faster performance.

  Read Review

• Wondershare Filmora Review

  
  MSRP: $59.99
  

  Pros: Pleasing interface. Inexpensive. Lots of effects and overlays. Good title tool.

  Cons: Action Cam and Cutter modes only allow one clip at a time. No search for effects or transitions. No motion tracking. No DVD menu or chapter authoring. Not a touch-friendly interface.

  Bottom Line: Wondershare's Filmora video editing software may not have multicam or the hottest new VR tools, but it does have a pleasing interface and lots of effects.

  Read Review

• Apple Final Cut Pro X Review

  
  MSRP: $299.99
  

  Pros: Magnetic, trackless timeline. Superior organization tools, including libraries, ratings, tagging, auto analysis for faces, scenes. Support for 360-degree footage and HDR. Multicam support. Fast performance. MacBook Touch Bar support.

  Cons: Nontraditional timeline-editing may turn off longtime editors. Can't import projects from previous versions without a third-party plug-in. No stabilization or motion tracking for 360-degree video.

  Bottom Line: Apple's professional-level video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, brings a wealth of power in an interface simple for pros and consumers alike. Recent highlights include rich support for 360-degree content and improved stability.

  Read Review

• Nero Video Review

  
  MSRP: $49.99
  

  Pros: Inexpensive. Plenty of video effects. Good audio tools. Solid file format support, including H.265. Compatible with 4K content. Burns DVD, Blu-ray, and AVCHD.

  Cons: Light on features. Outdated, unconventional interface. No 360 or 3D support. No motion tracking. No direct output to social networks.

  Bottom Line: For less money than the competition, Nero offers a wide array of enthusiast-level video editing capabilities, but the interface is dated and it trails in support for new formats and techniques.

  Read Review

• Apple iMovie Review

  
  MSRP: $0.00
  

  Pros: Beautifully simple interface. Color matching for consistent movie looks. Classy themes. Great chroma-keying tool. Lots of audio tools. Theater feature shares movies to all your Apple gear.

  Cons: Not as flexible as some PC video editors. In the name of simplicity, some useful controls are missing. Does not support tagging. Lacks multicam or motion tracking capabilities. Limited to two video tracks.

  Bottom Line: Apple's excellent entry-level desktop video editing application can turn your footage and photos into impressive productions.

  Read Review

Looking for free video editor for Mac to edit & create videos? This guide will show you the major difference between free and paid Mac video editors, and also lists top 12 award-winning free video editors for you.

You may want to edit or create videos for many reasons, like make some tutorials, create videos with pictures, crop and rearrange screen recordings, etc. No matter for what, to make a video more interesting and professional, you need a video editor.

If you are a beginner in video editing and just want to do some simple edits, like crop or split a clip, you can have a try on some free video editing software. Most free video editors are capable of the ability of basic edit functions as crop, trim, cut, split, combine, etc. The following text lists top 12 easy-to-use Mac video editors for you.

But, free software doesn’t meet every need, there is no doubt that free software is really not capable of many advanced video editing features that professional tools can give you, like closed captions, effective video effects, callouts, annotations, transitions, cursor effects, and more. So, if you find free video editor can’t meet your requirements, then you can refer to professional video editing software for Mac (macOS High Sierra).

Now, let’s know more about the difference between free and paid video editing software for Mac at first, then look at the top 12 free Mac video editors one by one.

Table of Contents:

Comparison Chart of Free & Paid Video Editors

Top 12 Free Video Editing Software for Mac

Top 1 - iMovie

iMovie is a video editing software developed by Apple Company for Mac and iOS devices. Originally released in 1999 as an application for Mac OS 8, and now the latest version is iMovie 11. It has a range of great features including supports green-screen, picture-in-picture and split-screen scenes, applying for an audio fade within a clip, take good control of background noise, allows to change speed of video, and more share options (upload videos directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc.) and so on.

Top 2 - QuickTime

Just as Wikipedia says that QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple, capable of handing various formats of digital video, pictures, sound, panoramic images and interactivity. As a built-in application for Mac, it makes it easy for you to do some quick edits like adjust the length of the video, combine a few clips into a single file, cut and delete unwanted segments, etc. Plus, it also supports video convert, screen recording, and allows you to share videos to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Flickr.

Top 3 - Lightworks

Lightworks, as an all-major operating systems supported video editing program, supports videos in SD, HD and even 4K video formats. With its strong editing function, it has been chosen by many films as movie maker, mostly known for its well-organized interface that makes it can be a great assistance for professional users. Obviously, the professional version is paid for use. Fortunately, Lightworks offers a free version to common users that may have a limitation of exporting projects in MP4 format to Vimeo and YouTube with maximum 720p resolution.

Top 4 - DaVinci Resolve

Actually, the pro version of Da Vinci Resolve is not free, like Da Vinci Resolve Studio 14 costs $299 and DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Studio is $995. However, the basic version is totally free. It has a friendly interface, and incorporates a similar high quality image creating capacities, an enhanced video editor, some portion also includes color amendment abilities. Supports up to 4K UHD resolution and no watermarks on footage, even supports external hard drives for faster video editing.

Top 5 - OpenShot

Openshot is another award-winning open-source video editing software for Mac, as well as for Linux and Windows. It is a quick to learn Mac video editor, and surprising powerful. It also has lots of outstanding features like: easy to trim videos, supports animation framework (that you can fade, slide, bounce, and animate anything in your video project, provides unlimited tracks, also capable of the ability of adding title and some special video effect, etc.

Top 6 - Shotcut

Shotcut is also a good free, open source and cross-platform video editor for Mac users. Currently, it is still under dynamic improvement, thus you can find it releases new version in every month. The highlights of Shotcut including supports for a wide range of formats, no import required meaning native timeline editing, Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring, and resolution support to 4K, etc.

Top 7 - Blender

Blender is free and open source video editing software, free to use for any purpose, forever. It has several parts, video editing is just a small part of this software. For video editing, Blender allows you to perform basic actions like video cuts and splicing, adjust speed and layers, add images, audio, scenes and effects, as well as more complex tasks. However, many users reported that Blender has a complex interface, you need to spend more time on learning guides and video tutorials.

Top 8 - Kdenlive

Kdenlive is an open source video editor, developed by s small team. It starts from around 2003, which grows significantly throughout these years, and now looks more like an expert video editing software than it used to. In the latest version of Kdenlive, it has more useful highlights such as supports multi-track video editing, allows to use almost any audio and video formats without converting, more effects and transitions, and the capacity to include titles etc.

Top 9 - Avidemux

Avidemux is an open source video editor for Mac that will make cutting, filtering (applying visual effects), and encoding a breeze. It’s compatible with different video formats such as DVD, MPEG, AVI, and many more. If you are a beginner in video editing, than this application suits you perfectly because it's very easy to use and allows you to edit video files without experiencing any inconvenience. If you just want to accomplish a simple editing, you can try Avidemux.

Top 10 - Jahshaka

Jahshaka is also a free video editor that offers you an immersive media management and playback platform. There are many outstanding features of Jahshaka, for instance: powerful project management virtual desktop, 3D animation with per object timelines, made fro VR, full assortment of lights with shadows, support for a wide variety of 3D objects, and more. Although it is said to support Mac OS X, it may not support the latest version such as macOS High Sierra as on its official website it says it can only support older Mac system. Thus, before downloading this video editor, it is necessary for you to check your Mac version.

Top 11 - VideoLAN Movie Creator

VideoLAN Movie Creator is another free video editing software for Mac, based on the proven VLC framework, simple to use and powerful. It supports merging, trimming videos clips, apply filter, allows add background music, preview, etc. But it only supports local exporting.

Best Free Video Editing Software For Mac

Top 12 - MovieMator

MovieMator is also a totally free video editing software for Mac, but it more like a professional video editing software, which allows you to add images for a vivid photo slideshow or as cut-ins between video, clips. Filled with lots of unique visual effects and transitions, this free video editor can make fancy home movies in a few minutes. It enhance videos with chroma key, trim and crop fragments, cut footage into parts, delete unnecessary clips, rotate the frame, adjust the volume, import favorite music, and add various filters or transitions.

Conclusion

That’s all for the introduction of free video editing software for Mac. Certainly, free video editor can’t satisfy all your demands, if you want to do more advanced video edits with your project, you can have a try on professional video editing software. For how to choose the one that suits you best depends on your need and budget.

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